Love and Loss as Chekhov Comes to Theatre Erindale |
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| [Mississauga ON, March 2016] Director Melee Hutton says it best: “The Seagull is one of the deepest explorations of loss, unrequited love and fierce artistic argument ever written.” This extraordinary masterpiece – a play that changed the course of the Modern Theatre – is the final production of Theatre Erindale’s Silver Anniversary Season. It runs March 10-20 at the Erindale Studio Theatre. Don’t miss it!
An extended family of artists – both writers and actors, both young and not-so-young – whiles away the summer by a lake amid tangles of unrequited love. Kostya is obsessed with Nina, while Masha is desperate for Kostya and Medvedenko is desperate for Masha. Nina is bewitched by the writer Trigorin, who is in turn the boytoy of the aging star Arkadina. But Sorin is dying. And the leaves are about to fall … William Gerhardi identifies the play as the first to use “a totally different kind of plot, the tissues of which, as in life, lie below the surface of events, and, unobtrusive, shape our destiny.” And Norris Houghton describes the author’s work as “life with its trivialities, its crises, its laughter, its tears, its heartbreaks, its exultations.” Anton Chekhov was a Russian doctor famous for his short stories before he wrote his first plays. The first production of The Seagull by a conventional theatre company in 1895 was a humiliating disaster. But when the new Moscow Art Theatre mounted a rewritten version two years later, everything changed: a luminous new style of playwriting was born, hand in hand with a life-like new style of acting. And the two have been inseparable ever since: actors in every language love Chekhov. The wonderful translation for this production is by David French, and was first performed on Broadway. The pleasure of working simultaneously on the greatest of Canadian playwrights and the greatest of Russian playwrights was too much for Theatre Erindale to resist! Hutton’s UK career includes memorable credits for the National Theatre, the Royal Court, and London’s West End. In Canada she has received multiple Dora nominations both for acting and directing. She has been involved in two previous productions of The Seagull, and staged The Rover two years ago for Theatre Erindale. The stars are from the graduating class of the Sheridan-UTM Theatre and Drama Studies Program. Period costumes are by Joanne Massingham, stage management by Dana Paul, projections by Lumir Hladik, and lighting by Jim Smagata. The Seagull runs for 9 PERFORMANCES ONLY between March 10 and 20 at the Erindale Studio Theatre on the UTM campus. Single tickets are $12 or $18. Mississauga Transit Routes 44 and 110 will take you to the campus, and Parking in the CCT Garage is $6.00. For further information, call the Box Office at 905-569-4369 or visit  |
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| Production photos from Monday 7 March: |
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